NEW YORK - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says President George Bush's foreign policy has put the United States at increased risk from terrorism.

"The core of this presidency has been a political doctrine that George Bush calls the 'Global War on Terror,'" Edwards said Wednesday in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations. "He has used this doctrine like a sledgehammer to justify the worst abuses and biggest mistakes of his administration, from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, to the war in Iraq."

Edwards said the Republican president's approach has strained the U.S. military to the breaking point. "We need a strong military for a new century, and we need one based on hope, not fear," he said.

Edwards' campaign said that if elected president, he would "only use offensive force after all other options, including diplomacy, have been exhausted, and after we have made efforts to bring as many countries as possible to our side."